Saturday, March 19, 2011

Game 71/Minnesota: Gallos' take

By now most readers know that the CBJ won in overtime tonight against the Minnesota Wild, setting a franchise record for most road wins at 17. The winner came on a gaffe in overtime, when the Wild cleared the puck directly to Vermette, and he scored with 34 seconds remaining in overtime for the 5-4 OT win. It was a see-saw affair, that saw the Wild putting on the goon in the second period to the extent that it would have even embarrassed the St. Louis Blues. Grant Clitsome was put out of the game with a knee on knee hit behind the play, that I wasn't shown on the tube. Presumably the league will review whether or not it was clean, no penalty was called on the play, not shock in this game.

Neither the Dark Blue Jacket or myself were able to watch the game, as he was called away unexpectedly, and I was at an all day seminar. Fortunately upon receiving his text that I was on call, I remembered to call Mrs. G and tell her to fire up the DVR. That's when the fun started.

I got home after my seminar thoroughly chilled after making the mistaken decision that it was warm enough to not need coveralls for the 25 mile motorcycle ride up to the seminar. Oops. Since the game was long over at this point, Mrs. G and I made dinner, and settled down to watch the game afterward. Since I had forgotten to set it up before I left, Mrs. G was only able to start the DVR part way through the second period. But we promptly got the chance to see double D, Derek Dorsett try to fight a guy about 9 feet taller than he following a questionable hit on Lepisto. The refs apparently took umbrage with this, thinking that they were actually in control of the game, and assessed him an instigator penalty. Later in the next period, Upshall is being held by one Wild player while another one punches him. No instigator call on that one though. You be the judge on that.

Kris Russell slammed the tying goal home with seconds left before the second intermission, to tie the game at 2. I took quick trip to the fridge for refreshment, and blessed the DVR for the fast forward feature. The third period was fun for awhile, as Hejda snuck a slapper through Backstrom's 5 hole, and then Brass fed Nash as the trailer on the breakaway for his second goal of the night, and the Jackets lead 4-2 with less than 5 minutes remaining. With about 3 minutes remaining a magnetic anomaly in the earth's gravity ripped Dorsett's helmet off his head away from the play, and Havlat magically appeared all alone in front of the goal. We know there wasn't an interference penalty away from the play 'cause the refs didn't call it. The Wild scored to cut the Jackets lead to 4-3. With a few minutes left it was still doable, and Mrs. G observed that the game must not have gone to OT based on the time left on the DVR. Suddenly, with less than 3 minutes remaining, the Wild scored to tie the game, and the DVR went blank. Oh, oh. The amount of time had no bearing on the length of the game.

Given how things have gone lately, it was a long and somber march to the internet to discover the final result. A bounce finally went our way, and the CBJ prevailed in overtime. Can you say "WHEW!!!"? Sure you can!

Congrats to Rick Nash for getting off the schneid, and scoring his 30th and 31st goals of the season, to score more than 30 goals in 7 of his 8 seasons. A very, very impressive performance by Nash, and thankfully enough luck for a win.

The New Jersey Devil-Wrenches (Mrs. G's nickname, check the logo) invade Nationwide Arena tomorrow for a matinee. Time to start a streak, although the Devil Wrenches will be bringing Hitch Hockey back to the 'wide for the first time since February 2010 and they have been hot.